Fa’amaoni ‘John’ Utu, convicted last month at federal court for stealing Section 1602 funds to benefit himself and his family, has resigned from the American Samoa Power Authority, citing personal reasons, says ASPA executive director Utu Abe Male.

Mr. Fa’amaoni Utu plead guilty under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors to one count of “theft of government property” in connection with the federally funded Section 1602 low income housing program, which was to build housing units for low income families in the territory.

According to the plea agreement, the federal charge is a felony. He was sentenced by the federal court in Washington D.C. to 36 months probation and told to pay restitution of $30,673. Additionally, he must perform 100 hours of community service. Restitution is to be paid to the victim — the U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Services.

Supervision of his case has since been transferred to the federal Probation Office in Honolulu, according to court records.

Responding to Samoa News inquiries, the ASPA executive director said Fa’amaoni John Utu resigned last Friday from his job “for personal reasons.” He also said that Fa’amaoni was the operations manager and as such he was responsible for getting construction work done in Manu’a as well as projects on Tutuila.

In the federal case, prosecutors contend that the defendant used Section 1602 funds to finish the construction of his own home, which he began years earlier, by adding bedrooms and significantly improving the second floor of his residence. He was awarded $106,250 to construct two units of low-income housing by the Development Bank of American Samoa, the local administrator for the Section 1602 program funded by the U.S. Treasury Department.

A House ASPA Committee hearing in April 2013 revealed that Fa’amaoni John Utu (who had worked for ASPA a few years back) had been assigned by the governor early that year to ASPA.

Samoa News archive stories shows that John Utu had also worked with the ASG American Samoa Economic Stimulus & Recovery Office (ASESRO), which was closed down when the Lolo Administration took office in January 2013.

John Utu was among the ASESRO officials who testified in a September 2012 hearing by the Senate, which was probing the Section 1602 program after a draft interim report on the program became the subject of several Samoa News stories in July.